Duluth: Day 3 into 4

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"And who is my neighbor?" - Luke 10:29-37

We've been busy. Up early to prepare breakfast, cleaning our home for the week, packing lunches, doing yard work and gardening, organizing food shelves, moving boxes/supplies/donations/food, painting, dancing, conversing, playing, laughing, crying, falling, singing, dwelling, praying. And then we do it all again the next day. It's wonderful. But it is so busy. One of the girls shared with me last night that while her body is really tired, it's her mind she's having the hardest time calming down each evening. She feels like gears continue to turn and once she gets one set of gears to slow down another cranks up and she's off to reflect on another part of her day.

We get to experience so many fun moments when we spend a week together in close quarters, sleeping mat to mat on a church basement floor, packed in and out of full vans. We giggle and joke our way through the down time because it can get really tough when the quiet comes and our minds remind us of where we've been, who we have met. For many, as we've painted fingernails and played games, or simply sat in quiet closeness to a nursing home resident, this has been the first time we've come face to face with the reality of aging and the possibility of doing that alone. For others, it is the first time entering the home of someone who struggles to maintain that home and has no one to call for assistance. And for a few, it is the first time we've met someone our own age who doesn't have a safe place to go to after school, who doesn't have an adult who makes sure they are fed and clothed. It's hard. And so we play and laugh and dance when we get a moment. Because thinking about who we've met gets those gears going and they are hard to stop.

"And who is my neighbor?"

Duluth: Day 2

[instagram url=https://instagram.com/p/4zQyhLn0xH/?taken-by=moplychurch] Have you felt as if your body is ready to collapse into your bed but your mind just won't stop turning?

Exhausted but excited.

That's how most of us feel as we attempt to adhere to lights out after our first day at service sites. Our bodies are longing to rest on our camp mats and air mattresses (You know you're tired when that sounds delightful!) but we can't stop reliving our favorite moments together, from meals, Club and Church Group Time, and especially from our service sites.

Despite rain keeping us inside most of the day, we were able to engage in a variety of Duluth communities. Many windows were washed, bathrooms scrubbed, food shelves stocked and organized, furniture moved, fingernails painted, Bingo cards filled, and board games played. We saw God in Duluth's diverse communities, ages 6 to 106. From the Boys and Girls Club to assisted living homes to private residences, we were invited into individuals' lives and offered an opportunity to hear their story. Did we take that opportunity?

Each evening we are fortunate to spend time with one another in small groups, "family groups," to reflect on the day and dwell in the Word. Our dwelling for this evening was Micah 6:8

He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

For the next three days we will continue to participate in charitable acts of service. With compassion and love, we will aim to meet the immediate needs of the organizations and individuals we are invited to engage with. But what will happen in these communities when mission trip season is over and all the vans and youth groups head home?

We challenged ourselves to take time tomorrow to hear someone's story. To stop and listen. It's a simple task, but can be so hard to do, especially when you are in an unknown and possibly uncomfortable place.

By taking the time to hear, getting past the nervousness and slipping into familiarity, we will begin to discover new and bold ways we can be an active part of God's work in the world. We will begin to figure out how we can respond to God's call to do justice. While we continue to support charitable organizations and stock the shelves of food banks, we will begin to explore how we can play a role in eliminating the root causes of hunger and poverty.

We will aim to be voices for change and justice.

 "We do justice when we give all human beings their due as creations of God." -Timothy Keller

Duluth: Dawn of Day 2

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So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow. 1 Corinthians 3:7

Over the last 9 months, as our 7^th & 8^th grade, Senior High youth, and adult leaders have prepared to connect in Duluth and Denver, we have dwelled in the above verse. This passage has been met with mixed reviews. “So WE aren’t anything, only God matters?” “I work hard. What do mean only God makes things happen.”

Today we head out to our first service sites. Some of us will connect with nursing home residents, a few will engage with the clients, staff, and volunteers of the Union Gospel Mission, we will bring joy and love to children at the Boys and Girls Club, and others will join a couple in cleaning and sorting through 37 years of belongings as they prepare to move from their home.

We will look for God and discover ways we can be positive forces in the world. We will keep open hearts and minds as we engage with God’s diverse children, and we will discover how God is at work within us, planting, tending, and nurturing each of us.

As we engage with the Duluth community and with one another we will plant metaphorical seeds. We will tend to those relationships, watering and feeding them. And we will remind one another that God is at work within each of us, helping those seeds grow, giving us the strength to continue planting.

WE ARE HERE NOW: What We Practice

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/211971897" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height='450' iframe="true" /] The past four weeks, Mount Olivet has explored and engaged in what makes us unique: we are a community who believes, experiences, and practices what it means to listen, observe and respond to God in the world.

There is an eternal movement of the Holy Spirit which leads and guides us individually and as a greater community of faith to view each moment, each breath as faithful encounter. The spirit encourages us to be intentional and present every moment of every day. It is a practice where we:

LISTEN: Listen to God, to each other, to our neighbors, and the world. It is deep listening and attending to the brokenness in the world and how God's redeeming word restores it. Dwelling in the Word and the world, the polarities God's life and the brokenness of the world come into focus.

POINT: Listening to God focuses our perspective on what God is up to in the world and in us.We point to the Spirit at work declaring God's activity in us. BUT the world also engages us - pointing out to us where God is moving. That movement of God's spirit inspires us to respond.

DO: When we listen to and observe God in us and the world, we are enveloped in God's movement. We become God's humble partners in the good work of justice and mercy. As we respond, we reflect on how God is working in our midst which moves us back into listening.

It's a beautiful rhythm of the spirit of which we are an intentional part. It is a rhythm that guides every conversation, decision, and struggle. The intention is in the practice. And the practice grows the muscle memory, making it a natural filter for every faithful moment of life.

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Peace and promise, Pete Erickson

WE ARE HERE NOW: Our Future

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Imagine...

five years from now you’re in a hot air balloon, one hundred feet above Mount Olivet’s campus, on a Sunday.

What would you see?

What would you smell?

What would you hear?

Imagine the same scenario, but on a Tuesday - and ask yourself the same questions.

Over one hundred people participated in this visioning exercise between December 2014 and February 2015, and the results brought to light several common themes:

•  The property around Mount Olivet was described as having no boundaries, or seeping into the community, like a glacier melting from the building outward.
• People of broad diversity filled the building and the grounds with music, laughter, talking, and also silence. They were engaged in a wide array of activities, from study and prayer, to connecting socially, to groups working on service projects and in the gardens.
• Smells of baking cookies and bread, coffee, vegetables in the garden, fresh mown grass, grilling, and even Axe body spray mixed with Old Spice and Doritos were present.
• The overall feeling was a vibrant community full of energy and anticipation; a safe and judgement free zone; a community gathering place full of delightful sound but with space for silence and reflection.

The compilation of these many vision descriptions resulted in the following Vision Statement:

Led by the Holy Spirit, Mount Olivet is a community that engages and dwells with God, each other and the world. Nourished in spirit, body and mind, sharing faith through action, words and song, we create an experiential community that fosters diversity. We use both indoor and outdoor space for joyful noise and quiet reflection. Our community allows us to safely explore and use our callings, and grow in congregation-led mission inside and outside the walls of Mount Olivet. We love and care for God’s whole creation and show concern for people who will come after us.

We believe this vitalized vision is what God hopes for our future as a community. How do we get there?

Three yearly goals were written to help us: 

• For MO members to understand their passions/talents as a gift from God to be shared with the community for the betterment of life for all.
• Learning and practicing our trust in God
• Individually and organizationally MO will endeavor to learn about and set to practice the embrace and nurture of diversity in our community.

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This is the work of the congregation moving into God's preferred future - all of us - together!

For as in one body we have many members, and not all members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.     -Romans 12:4-5

Peace to all, Kirsten Kessel, DM

WE ARE HERE NOW: Our Identity. Our Mission. Our Vision

[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/209735027" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&visual=true" width="100%" height='450' iframe="true" /] Think about an experience, event or moment that you either participated in or witnessed, that made you think of Mount Olivet.  Why did Mount Olivet come to mind?

Over the last three years Mount Olivet has been listening, experimenting and discerning who we are and how God is calling us to be bearers of his love and compassion in word and deed.  During this time, we have discovered our core values and what makes us unique.  Through our discovery, we have created an identity statement reflecting what we have learned.  This identity statement clarifies who we are, and helps us articulate our unique call in the world. 

OUR IDENTITY

We are a community who:

• BELIEVES in the life-giving God revealed through Jesus, who shows up in daily life, engaging us with God’s work in the world.   
• EXPERIENCES a faith journey together with openness and compassion, wonder and expectation, trusting in the promises of Christ.
• PRACTICES being church in the world by listening to God and neighbor, pointing to God’s active presence, and doing what God calls us to do.

 Our mission is our work, what we do.

OUR MISSION

Finding our place in God’s unfolding story by dwelling in God, connecting in community, engaging in our callings in the world.

When we live in our identity and do our mission we become our vision.

OUR VISION

A Community Partnering with God in the World

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Where do you find a connection between your response to the initial question and our identity, mission and vision?

God's Peace, Pastor Beth

Watch a video of the presentation on Sunday, June 7, 2015.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=clUvYesUo50&w=560&h=315]

WE ARE HERE NOW: Framing It Up

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Mount Olivet has a unique identity and sense of mission as well as a particular hope for the future. This has become clearer over the past four years as we have engaged in a process called Partnership for Missional Church. It is time to assess what we've learned, so we can confidently move forward. But identity, mission and vision do not happen in a void. We are wrestling with certain questions and realities that the world gives to us. The following are six key questions that shape our understanding of ourselves. How do we go about answering them?

Where can we find a life-giving narrative that gives us a solid center in this world?

As churches move further and further to the periphery of our communities, a moral and spiritual void grows. Multiple narratives promise to fill the void: social, political, and market ideologies; the promise of technological and scientific progress; the exhilaration of the information age; personal achievement and status climbing. While none of these options have provided the center that people and communities need, Jesus’ story is just that center. Yet all of us feel the constant pull of the other scripts!

How can we connect in community in a culture of disconnect?

As participants in a world of exponential choices, information, and distraction, we often feel paralyzed, fragmented and alone. It is the irony of our age that we have more options for connecting with each other than ever before but are as disconnected, and sometimes lonelier, than ever. An increasing number of people simply lack the grounding experience of a community gathered around something that matters – something like Christian community.

How can we experience a relationship with the living God at work in the world?

As countless individuals struggle to find meaning and an experience of God, many assume Christian faith is either a body of knowledge or a moral test. It is not. A living and gracious God is among us, inviting us into relationship with him as we journey through life. This is a God needed by those who suffer and struggle (which is everyone!). God’s Word is not merely printed on a page. This Word is alive!

How can we reclaim the sacredness of a world we assume is already lost?

When we look around us, we assume the sacredness of God has no place in a world as compromised, fallen and profane as ours. But God made this world and is at work in it, which means sacred ground can be found anywhere. That God shows up in the most unlikely places and people is an invitation to pay attention and be ready to connect.

How can we celebrate and embrace the rich diversity of the world that God created?

As we find ourselves living in an increasingly diverse world with endless possibilities for partnership, far too many assume the worst in their neighbor and adopt an us/them way of looking at the world. Since God created our world and blessed it with diversity, we know that God is at work through and in diversity.  

How can we as God’s people be more than mere consumers and make a difference in the world?

As the chasm between culture and church grows, faith communities struggle with how to find their footing again. Living in a consumer culture, many congregations adopt a consumer-driven model of faith, dependent on a product that church professionals produce, while others hope we’ll magically return to 1950. In the meantime, God is at work in the world doing a new thing and looking for people who want to partner with God to make a difference. Do you want to be a part of this movement in the world?

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How do you resonate with these questions? Do you think they seem relevant to what you know about our world and Mount Olivet? Please respond and let me know if you think these six considerations point us in the right direction!

God's peace, Pastor John

Watch a video of Pastor John's presentation in worship on Sunday, May 31:[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i30NOvu4W04&w=560&h=315]

Summer Fun & Service: Duluth Mission Trip

Upsidedown Kingdom: Expect the Unexpected Let’s overturn the ordinary and exceed expectations, hope for what is coming, and be part of what is here!

Twenty-two Mount Olivet junior high school students and adults will travel to Duluth in July to work with our host organization, YouthWorks. Participants will serve at a variety of service sites, participate in urban learning experiences, and dwell and worship together. YouthWorks spends many months connecting in the community to insure that our missionaries are meeting true needs and will be making an impact, while also having the chance to connect with one another in safe environments. Possible service sites include local food shelves,clothing distribution centers, soup kitchens, summer children/youth programs, and elderly care facilities.

Some of MO past participants’ favorite activities have been:

• Connecting with local children and youth
• Prepping, serving and “cleaning up” meals
• Experiencing the diversity of the local community through cultural presentations and shared meals
• End the of week foot washing

How can those of us staying at home continue to support and encourage the Mission Trip participants?

The wonderful financial support from the MO community, through MissionStock, Lenten Suppers and the Flower Sale Fundraiser is greatly appreciated! Beyond that, participants ask for prayers. Notes of encouragement are welcome as well. Mission trips are emotionally and physically exhausting, and it is nice to be reminded that people are prayerfully supporting participants.

To support Mount Olivet’s Duluth Mission Trip participants, please contact Summer.      [ Summer · santhony@moply.org ]

Summer Fun and Service: Denver Mission Trip

Interrupted: Let the Holy Spirit Change Lives Have you ever wondered what going on a Mission Trip would be like?

Thirty-six Mount Olivet high school students and adults will travel to Denver in July to work with our host organization, Center for Student Missions (CSM). Participants will serve at a variety of sites, participate in urban learning experiences, and dwell and worship together. CSM partners with local organizations year round, ensuring that our missionaries will participate in service work that will positively impact both them and the community. Possible service sites include Denver Rescue Mission, Urban Peak, Bridge Project, Denver Urban Gardens. Through these experiences, CSM is asking participants to allow God to interrupt their lives.

Some of MO past participants’ favorite activities have been:

• Prayer tours
• Urban Plunge/Poverty Simulation: Youth and adult leaders in small groups are sent into a specific part of the city with a small amount of money and a map. Together they must figure out how to feed themselves with the set amount of money and get back to the home site.
• Meet-a-Need: Small groups spread out in the community with a small amount of money to meet the need of someone they encounter. It’s an exercise in crossing boundaries, being resourceful, and lovingly and bravely connecting in community.
• Dinners at local, authentic, ethnic restaurants.

How can those of us staying at home continue to support and encourage the Mission Trip participants?

The wonderful financial support from the MO community, through MissionStock, Lenten Suppers and the Flower Sale Fundraiser is greatly appreciated! Beyond that, participants ask for prayers. Notes of encouragement are welcome as well. Mission trips are emotionally and physically exhausting, and it is nice to be reminded that people are prayerfully supporting participants.

To support Mount Olivet’s Denver Mission Trip participants, please contact Summer.

[ Summer · santhony@moply.org ]

Connect Groups: Older, Wiser Lutherans

A fellowship/service group for all Mount Olivet members, friends and family who are over the age of 55! Join the OWLs for monthly gatherings planned either at Mount Olivet or off-site excursions. Past events have included ice-cream socials, apple orchard visits, pot lucks, and game days.

I enjoy meeting new friends and connecting with friends. It is a safe group to share your aches, pains, sorrows and joys, and have some young-at-heart fun!

- Dave Iverson

Contact Dave Iverson to be added to the reminder list.

[ Dave · djiverson@frontier.net · 763-479-1094 ]